Scotland

We wanted to celebrate Christmas 2017 a little different, we’ve never been away from home so it was a strange feeling to be leaving home right before Christmas. We had booked a log cabin in Scotland, our main reason for wanting to go to Scotland was to show the kids snow, we don’t get snow in the south of England!

(Be prepared for visual overload!!)

I won’t lie, packing for it was stressful. I didn’t anticipate packing all the Christmas presents on top of a suitcase AND a weeks worth of food. With a lots of wiggling around we done it, I’m not sure I could of put another pair of socks in the car in fact 🤣 we we’re headed to Inverness, 10 hours away!! We figured the best way to get there smoothly would be to drive through the night – no traffic and the kids would sleep the whole way. So we got our early night (Stu did, I couldn’t sleep 🙄) and got up at 11pm to set off. Heated the car and quickly hurried the kids in before they woke up too much. Off we went, kids went back to sleep pretty quick. The drive couldn’t have gone any better to be honest, we planned it well. We made one stop and we got there in 11 hours, we stopped off in the town of Inverness for a little while before arriving at Wildside lodges, in Whitebridge at midday. We were knackered!

Upon greeting the staff at Wildside Lodges they were so helpful and friendly, they allowed us early check in, showed us around, put in a stair gate, high chair, gates to go around the log fire. We spoke to the manager, Andy, and asked if he had a certain tool to build Indiana’s bike ready for Christmas. Well, he told us to come over to reception with the bike and he’d see what he could do. Andy was just incredible, the customer service was like no other. He built that whole bike to absolute perfection, turns out he used to do it for a job. What an amazing start to this little adventure. (This was a job I was expecting me to take all our evenings before Christmas to try and do!). That day we just chilled, got in our pj’s, put the fire on and chilled.

The next day we explored the local area, the beautiful bridges going over the lake that ran along side us, there were so many hikes/trails to go on right from our front door. It was lovely, just chilled and relaxed. We had no signal on our phones so it really was just us, it’s so nice to be taken away from everything. We played board games, made ginger bread houses, made desserts, cooked beautiful foods, jumped in the hot tub throughout the day, watched films, built forts, jumped on beds, played hide and seek. Just silly things, but the fact we were doing this together with no interruptions was just bliss.

Christmas Day came and spending Christmas morning opening presents in front of the log burner, eating shortbread was a Christmas I’ll never forget. In fact, it wasn’t just a day for us, the whole 7 days felt like Christmas. Stu was actually ill on Christmas Day, but it didn’t matter, we had our special beef Wellington on Boxing Day and it was just as good. So much pressure is build up for just Christmas Day, I feel anyway! I absolutely loved doing it this way.

We visited Fort Augustus which is 10 minutes down the road from us, this is the gate way of Loch Ness. What a beautiful little town it is, we wondered around there for a short while before making our way back through the mountains and waterfalls to our home, on the way seeing hundreds of deers. Indiana was amazed to see so many real life ‘reindeers’. Not to forget about all the other farm animals they got to see throughout all of our drives in Scotland.

The day after Boxing Day, we woke up, like a normal day. Indiana asked to go in the hot tub first thing…as always. It didn’t get light until about 9 so when I stepped outside to put the hot tub lights on, I was welcomed by white fields that went off far in to the distant mountains. IT HAD SNOWED! We had the white Christmas we had hoped for, and boy did it snow. It snowed that whole day and throughout night, it was magical and everything we had hoped for. Sitting in the hot tub whilst watched the big snow flakes slowly fall was just a moment we’ll never forget. We tried getting out in the car that day, however after sliding down a hill not being able to stop because of the ice we swiftly made our way back. We had snow ball fights, re-enacted ‘Frozen’, made a snowman (Indiana watched me from the hot tub 🤣), walked on ice. It was just incredible.

Staying in the log cabin made our trip, it was perfect, it had everything you could possibly need. It felt like a home away from home, very rarely do we go somewhere and not want to come home. This trip is up there with the big ones for sure, we loved it that much that we’ve booked it for 2019 (2018 is booked up for the cabin we stayed in). They have so many options of different cabins, some with heated flooring, all with hot tubs. Gosh, it’s just incredible and well worth the drive. We always say, even if the travelling part seems like a nightmare in the moment, once your back home, you’ll forget about the bad moments and the memories you’ll take away are the ones that will stick with you for life. Just amazing. We can’t decide what to do for this year now?! Any suggestions?

Anyway, hope you enjoy the hundreds of photos that I wanted to share with you all and for something we could always look back on too! Have a lovely 2018.